BATS; Top Choices Can No Longer Break the Bank

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

Published: June 3, 2012

Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, teammates on the Washington Nationals, were baseball's closest equivalents to the hype-inducing draft picks of the N.B.A. and N.F.L., and they used that hype to demand lucrative major league contracts.

Harper, the top pick in 2010, received a $6.25 million signing bonus as part of a $9.9 million major league deal. Strasburg, the top pick of 2009, did even better, with a $7.5 million bonus and a $15.1 million contract.

No matter who is picked first over all in the 2012 first-year player draft, which begins Monday, he will not be handed nearly as much security. In a system that will feel familiar to fans who participate in salary-cap fantasy leagues, teams will be working with an assigned bonus pool that they can distribute among their early draft picks, and this year, with strong incentives to not go over their limit.

None of the players in this year's draft have the hype of a Strasburg or a Harper, but when one does eventually come along, this change could be among the most significant in baseball's latest collective bargaining agreement.

Teams are no longer allowed to sign draft picks to major league contracts, and each pick of the first 10 rounds is assigned a dollar value by Major League Baseball. The combined value of a team's picks in those 10 rounds determines its total pool of money. While the total is rigid, the team is free to distribute the money as it sees fit among those picks.

For example, the Houston Astros, who own the No. 1 pick, have a total bonus pool of $11,177,000 for 11 players. The top pick was assigned a value of $7.2 million, but if Houston signs a player for less than his assigned slot, it could then distribute the remaining money among its other 10 picks.

The bonus pools vary, with Minnesota having the biggest at $12,368,200 for 13 picks and the Los Angeles Angels having the smallest at $1,645,700 for eight picks (largely because the team's first pick is No. 114). In contrast to past practice, when slotted salaries were routinely ignored, going outside the bonus pool will result in a series of penalties including taxes on the overage and the potential to lose one or two future first-round draft picks.

The agreement has a protection plan in case a team tries to pull a fast one when the next Harper or Strasburg does come along by choosing to not sign some of the players to increase the amount of the top bonus. If a player fails to sign, his allotment of money is taken out of the team's pool.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.